Mara is known as the Evil One; the Buddha is known as the Blessed One. Mara is the personification of Death: "the kilesas (defilements) also came to be called Mara in that they were instruments of Death, the causes enabling Death to hold sway over the world".[1].

Mara is also called the lord of death(Maccuraaja), the exterminator (Antaka), the great king (Mahaaraaja), and the inescapable (Namuci) [2].

2. Why is Mara so powerful?

The five strands of sensuality(kaama-guna): forms, sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations plus ideas are Mara's power and the most powerful striking force.

"There are forms, monks, cognizable via the eye-- agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. If a monk relishes them, welcomes them, & remains fastened to them, he is said to be a monk fettered to forms cognizable by the eye. He has gone over to Mara's camp; he has come under Mara's power. The Evil One can do with him as he wills".

Repeat the above for the other four strands of sensuality: sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations and also for ideas cognizable via the intellect that are 'agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing'. [SN 35.115 Marapasa Sutta]